Various artists, Mutations, Tiwani Contemporary, London

This exhibition introduces four international artists to the UK for the first time: Ruby Oyinyechi Amanze, Douglas Rodrigo Rada, Helo Sanvoy and Shoshanna Weinberger have all exhibited frequently across the globe and this summer will present their work in London at Tiwani Contemporary.

Mutations is a showcase of works on paper, all diverse in technique, scale and imagery but sharing an interest in pushing the boundaries of drawing as a medium. The artists ask essential questions around fixed categories of forms and identities, following distinct conceptual trajectories and approaches to drawing.

To draw a line is to define a threshold and yet the works in this show concentrate on the hybrid, the liminal, the fragmented and the de-centered as fundamental elements of the human experience and as devices to probe the possibilities inherent in drawing. They posit it as a vehicle to explore ideas around shifting identities, hybridity and alterity and their works feature a variety of cultures, societies and realities.

Hailing from Nigeria, Bolivia, Brazil and Jamaica, many of the pieces display a sense of “otherness” and displacement, investigating narratives around self-discovery and cultural hybridity. Amanze’s works include an alien alter ego whose alterity reflects the diasporic experience and echoes amanze’s own experience of (non)-belonging, while Rada’s Metamorphosis studies the impossibility of a unified self and questions perceptions of the human body.

Sanvoy’s work often features linear patterns, highlighting the relatonship between drawing and writing and bearing similiarities to Leonardo de Vinci and Andreas Vesalius and Weinberger’s gouaches explore the cultural contingency of beauty and “otherness” in relation to race and gender.

Various artists, Mutations, until 5 July, Tiwani Contemporary, 16 Little Portland Sheet, London, W1W 8BP, www.tiwani.co.uk.

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Credit:
1. Shoshanna Weinberger, Forever Yours (2013) Gouache/mixed media on paper, 59.6 x 43.8 cm. Courtesy of Tiwani Contemporary.